Five days after the devastating fire at the As perfume factory in Jalmajiri, Baddi industrial city in Himachal Pradesh's Solan district, police on Tuesday discovered a warehouse 100 meters from the company premises that was being used to store finished products. A team of detectives led by Badi Police Superintendent Irma Afroz and a Central Forensic Laboratory (CFL) team took samples of the finished product for forensic examination.
“Forensic experts will test the samples to see what kind of chemicals were used in the product,” Afroz added, adding that the samples are crucial to the ongoing investigation. he added.
An investigation revealed that a perfume factory had overstocked chemicals to meet demand for Valentine's Day, February 14th. Preliminary investigations revealed that a fire broke out at the factory after workers heated drums in the traditional manner with fire logs, resulting in an explosion. Spread of fire.
Chemicals included benzyl alcohol, acetone, ethanol, ethyl acetate, benzaldehyde, formaldehyde, and methylene chloride. Drums were piled up.
Investigation revealed that the chemicals used by the perfume company were not registered with either the Pollution Department or the Excise Department, which is a major fraud. The investigation found that NR Aroma Company had violated fire and labor safety standards and that the fire was caused by the company's criminal negligence.
Industries Minister Harswardhan Chouhan visited the factory on Monday and found major deficiencies. Officials said this was criminal negligence on the part of the company.
After marathon meetings with executives from various departments, the government has made it mandatory for all factories to keep the fire department updated on the chemicals stored within their factories. He said factories must display evacuation plans in the event of a fire or other disaster.
Regular fire audits will be conducted at the factory, the official added. Further, the industrial department has decided to hire a contractor for the data lab and a copy of the building map will have to be deposited with the department, he added.
Meenakshi Mahajan, head of the state forensic science department, said water spray cannot control the chemical fire until the oxygen supply is cut off. Five people have so far died in the fire and five others are missing: Champo, Kajal, Kajal Bharti, Kalpana and Vijay Dubey.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to investigate the incident along with expert teams from NDRF, SDRF and FSL carried out search operations at the company premises on Monday and recovered various body samples including human samples for DNA analysis. However, officials said the entire building was unsafe and could not be searched.
